Kiln floor

ABSTRACT

A KILN FLOOR COMPRISED OF RIDDLE TILE SUPPORTED BY BASE BRICK. EACH RIDDLE TILE HAS A PLURALITY OF HOLES THERETHROUGH, A PLURALITY OF CHANNELS CONNECTING THE HOLES, A PLURALITY OF SEMICIRCULAR RECESSES ALONG THE SIDES, AND CHAMFERED EDGES. THE BASE BRICK UPON WHICH THE UPPER BRICK RESTS HAS A SINGLE GROOVE RUNNING THE LENGTH OF THE   BRICK. THE CHANNELS, RECESSES, AND HOLES FORM A NETWORK OF PASSAGEWAYS FOR IMPROVED CIRCULATION OF THE COMBUSTION PRODUCTS.

A. M. SWANK KILN FLOOR Jan; 12, 1971 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed June 27, 1968 m T N E V m Albert M. Swank HIS ATTORNEYS Jan. 12 1971 sw 3,553fl99 KILN FLOOR 7 Filed June 27, 1968 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 1N VENTOR.

Albert M. Swank ,j 3 BY WM 5 g HIS ATTORNEYS United States Patent M ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE A kiln floor comprised of riddle tile supported by base brick. Each riddle tile has a plurality of holes therethrough, a plurality of channels connecting the holes, a

plurality of semicircular recesses along the sides, and

chamfered edges. The base brick upon which the upper brick rests has a single groove running the length of the brick. The channels, recesses, and holes form a network of passageways for improved circulation of the combustion products.

My invention relates to a kiln floor and, more particularly, to the combination of riddle tile and base brick which comprise the kiln floor and which permit the free and constant circulation of the products of combustion therethrough.

There are a variety of different kinds of kilns in use today which have an even greater variety of applications. These kilns such as periodic, rectangular, beehive, shuttletype, or the tunnel-type have a common requirement. Since the basic purpose of a kiln is to treat an article contained therein under elevated temperature, the circulation of the combustion products through the treatment chamber becomes that critical common requirement. Poor circulation of the products of combustion throughout such a treatment chamber hinders the speed in which an anticle can be treated and minimizes the overall efficiency of the operation. The properties of the heat treated article are determined to a great extent by the heat treatment itself. An article which is treated in a kiln having poor circulation will not have uniform properties and will be prone to weaknesses in the areas which have not received adequate treatment.

My invention provides a kiln floor which maximizes the free and constant flow of the products of combustion throughout the treatment chamber of the kiln. The result of doing this provides a finished product which has uniformity of properties resulting from the uniformity of processing. Because of the greatly improved circulation resulting from my invention, I am able to set articles to be treated directly on the kiln floor without the use of kiln furniture.

The improved circulation has resulted not only in the improved uniformity of product but in the overall efficiency of the entire treating operation. This improved efficiency has appreciably reduced heating cycles while at the same time has improved the quality of the product treated.

My invention provides a floor made up of riddle tile having a series of holes completely therethrough. The sides of the riddle tile also contain recesses which form additional holes when riddle tile are abutted to one another in forming the floor. A series of channels on the top surface connect the holes with other holes as well as with the recesses. My invention also provides a base brick which supports the riddle tile and at the same time provides additional free circulation by having a groove extending across its top surface.

Various other features, objects, and advantages of the kiln floor will either be specifically pointed out or become apparent when, for a better understanding of the invention, reference is made to the following description taken 3,553,799 Patented Jan. 12, 1971 in conjunction with the accompanying drawings illustrating a preferred embodiment of the invention. In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a schematic of a rectangular kiln showing the kiln floor;

FIG. 2 is a plan view of a riddle tile;

FIG. 3 is a side view of a riddle tile;

FIG. 4 is an isometric of a base brick;

FIG. 5 is a portion of a kiln showing a blowup of the kiln fioor; and

FIG. 6 is a section showing base brick supporting the riddle tile.

In FIG. 1 I have shown a typical rectangular kiln 10 having sides 11 and a roof or crown 12. Two burner ports 16 on either side of the crown 12 provide the means for a heat source to treat the articles. The articles are referred to as ware and the treating of the ware as firing.

The floor 13 of the kiln is comprised of the upper layer of brick 14 called riddle tile and the supporting brick 15 hereinafter referred to as base brick. Many kilns employ various types of furniture positioned on the kiln floor to hold the ware which is to be fired. As will be seen, I have been able to eliminate this by improved circulation which permits the placing of the ware directly onto the floor itself.

The riddle tile are rectangular-shaped bricks which can be made of a variety of refractories depending upon the actual conditions under which it is employed. Fire clay is the most common material, but more sophisticated refractories such as kaolin, bauxite, multite, kyanite, and combinations thereof may be employed.

Referring to FIGS. 2 and 3, the riddle tile 14 have a plurality of holes 19 extending therethrough. In addition, there are a number of semicircular recesses 20 along the sides of the riddle tile which form additional holes when two riddle tile are placed in abutting relationship. A network of channels 21 in the top surface 23 connect various holes 19 and also connect the holes 19 with the recesses 20. In addition, the top edges 22 of the riddle tile 14 are chamfered so when two riddle tile are placed in abutting relationship, additional channels 21 are formed between the holes formed from the semicircular recesses 20. As shown, each hole 19 is connected with four other holes, and each hole formed by the semicircular recesses is connected with six other holes.

The base brick which can also be made of any of the above-mentioned refractories, as well as others, is shown in FIG. 4. The base brick 15 is a hexahedron having parallel top and bottom surfaces 24 and 25 respectively. The front surface 27 and back surface 28 are parallel and in the form of isosceles trapezoids. The upper surface 24 upon which the riddle tile are supported has a recessed groove 26 extending the entire length of the surface 24. As shown, groove 26 is midway of and parallel to the common top and side edges 29 and .30.

The actual placement of the riddle tile 14 and base brick 15 can best be seen in FIG. 5 The base brick 15 is placed in abutting relationship to form parallel spacedapart rows. The grooves 26 in the base brick are aligned and form a continuous groove along each row. The riddle tile 14 are also placed in abutting relationship but form a continuous surface with the rows in abutting relationship. The rows of riddle tile 14 are normal to and supported by the rows of base brick 15. Each base brick 15 supports two riddle tile 14. The riddle tile 14 are positioned on the base brick 15 so that the holes formed by the semicircular recesses 20 are positioned directly over the groove 26, as shown in FIG. 6.

The circulation of the air and combustible products is shown in FIG. 5 by the arrows 18. The holes 19 which include the holes formed by the recesses 20, the

channels 21 including those formed by the chamfered edges 22, the spaces between the parallel rows of base brick 15 and the grooves 26 provide a complete network of passageways for the air and combustible prodnets to circulate through the floor 13 and out of stack 17.

The base brick 15 form a solid bridge wall which is positioned so that the passageway into the stack is not blocked by the bridge wall. This then permits a continuous circulation through the floor and out of the stack.

This network of passageways enables the ware to be positioned directly on the floor and yet receive a uniform firing and resultant uniform properties.

A test floor was installed in a rectangular kiln for treating green brick. The riddle tile were 18 inches long, 11 inches wide and inches thick. The holes were 1% inches in diameter and were staggered, as shown in FIG. 2, at 3 inch intervals along the length. The staggering placed the outside rows 2 inches in from the edges the width and the intermediate rows every 1% inches in from the outside rows. The semicircular recesses were inch in radius and were positioned 3 inches, 9 inches, and inches in from one end of the riddle tile. The chamfered edges were /z-inch-wide at an angle of 45 degrees. The channels which were V-shaped were /2-inch-deep and /2- inch-wide.

The base brick had a 9-inch-wide base and a 4-inchwide top, was 6 inches tall and had an 11 inch length. The groove on the top surface had a inch radius. The rows of base brick were positioned on 18 inch centers to accommodate the riddle tile.

Both the base brick and riddle tile were made of regular clay. The kiln was gas fired and had the burners spaced evenly around the crown of the kiln.

Green brick were placed directly on the kiln floor.

The floor provided excellent circulation of the gas and air and improved the overall efiiciency of the kiln. The green bricks treated therein exhibited uniform properties indicating a proper and complete circulation was present.

While I have herein shown and described a preferred embodiment of my invention, it is recognized that departures may be made therefrom but that the invention will be accorded the full scope of the claims so as to embrace any and all equivalent devices.

I claim:

1. A kiln floor through which air and the products of combustion may circulate comprising:

(A) a plurality of base brick contiguously positioned forming a plurality of spaced-apart rows.

(1) each base brick having a longitudinal groove in the top surface,

(2) the grooves on abutting bricks being aligned forming a continuous groove in each row;

(B) a plurality of riddle tile positioned in abutting relationship forming a substantially continuous floor supported by the base brick, each tile having,

(1) a plurality of spaced holes extending substantially vertically therethrough and a plurality of channels in the top surface connecting the holes;

(C) the base brick and the riddle tile being positioned with the aligned grooves in the brick directly below at least some of the holes through the riddle tile.

2. The kiln of claim 1 wherein said floor comprises abutting rows of riddle tile, said rows being substantially perpendicular to the supporting rows of base brick.

3. The kiln of claim 2 wherein each riddle tile is supported by two base brick.

4. The kiln of claim 3 wherein the riddle tile are rectangular parallelepipeds and the base brick are hexahedrons having a top and bottom parallel surface, two op;- posite rectangular sides and two opposite parallel sides in the form of isosceles trapezoids.

5. The kiln of claim 4 wherein sides of the riddle tile have spaced recesses extending the length of the sides, which are substantially vertical and which form additional holes when riddle tile are contiguously positioned in forming rows. t

6. The kiln of claim 5 wherein the spaced recesses are semicircular.

7. The kiln of claim 5 wherein top edges of the riddle tile are chamfered, said chamfered edges forming addi tional grooves when riddle tile are contiguously positinned.

8. A kiln floor through which air and the products of combustion may circulate comprising:

(A) a plurality of base brick contiguously positioned forming a plurality of substantially parallel spacedapart rows,

(1) each base brick having a longitudinal in the top surface,

(2) the grooves on abutting bricks being aligned forming a continuous groove in each row;

(B) a plurality of riddle tile positioned in abutting relationship in substantially parallel abutting rows forming a continuous floor supported by the base brick, each tile having,

(1) a plurality of spaced holes extending substantially vertically therethrough,

(2) a plurality of spaced vertical recesses extending the length of the sides of the tile, the recesses forming additional holes when the tile are positioned forming the continuous floor,

(3) a plurality of channels in the top surface connecting the holes and the holes with the recesses,

(4) chamfered edges, the edges forming channels connecting the holes formed by the recesses when the tile are positioned forming the continuous floor;

(C) the rows of base brick and riddle tile positioned normal to each other with the aligned grooves in the base brick directly below at least some of the holes through the floor.

groove References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 338,206 3/1886 Stubbs 25-132 1,664,219 3/1928 Lee 263-46 1,793,129 2/1931 Patton 25-132 2,462,289 2/1949 Rochow 2 63-46X 3,471,136 10/1969 Hodl 263-46X FOREIGN PATENTS 1,096,652 2/1955 France 25-132 730,885 6/1955 Great Britain 25-132 I. SPENCER OVERHOLSER, Primary Examiner B. D. TOBOR, Assistant Examiner U.S. Cl. X.R. 25-136; 161-109; 263-46; 264-43 

